PTHS has balanced budget

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By Luke Smucker

Pontiac Daily Leader - Pontiac, IL

By Luke Smucker

Posted Sep. 14, 2013 at 11:44 AM

By Luke Smucker
Posted Sep. 14, 2013 at 11:44 AM

Pontiac, Ill.

During the budget hearing for fiscal year 2014 on Thursday, Superintendent Jon Kilgore reported to the Pontiac Township High School Board of Education that the budget will be balanced instead of at a $279,000 deficit due in part to a 1 percent reduction in technology and building expenses and a 1 percent increase in funds.

The board-approved budget now shows a surplus of $6,445 coming from $11.42 million in total revenue and $11.415 million in expenses. This budget is the first time in two years that District #90 has had a balanced budget. Kilgore said during the past two years, the building project forced the budget into a deficit situation.

“We had a $3 billion fund balance, but we were expending that on the project,” said Kilgore. “We were using some of our savings and that was purposely creating some deficit. Prior to that, we’ve almost always had a balanced budget.”

The fund increase comes from both a late General State Aid payment of $50,000 and savings coming from the first three months of incoming sales tax funds, which provides an additional $90,000. On the expenditures side, Kilgore said the high school found ways to reduce budgeting, the bulk of which came from the technology and building fund.

“It feels good to get back to that, but it also makes you nervous because any surprises can drastically alter your plans to have a balanced budget,” said Kilgore. “Everything is very tight and if something large were to happen, we would have to make a budget amendment and adjust to whatever that large expense was through the use of fund balances and reserves.”

PTHS Distinguished Service Award

This month’s Distinguished Service Award winner is volunteer John Tibbs. The volunteer has given more than 150 hours and is currently leading a group of volunteers to work on renovations to the baseball and softball field at PTHS. For his support, the Board of Education honored Tibbs with this month’s award.

One-To-One program audit

Kilgore said the One-To-One program was established to provide all students with 21st century technology skills. IT also is meant to prepare them for a college experience in which computer interaction and Internet activity are the norm,

“We have heard from parents and other knowledgeable sources that students are already using similar devices and web-based programs to complete college course work, so we are offering students college and career readiness,” said Kilgore. “The One-To-One program is an initiative with the goal of providing one device for every student.”

In the past, there was only one or two rooms which were dedicated as “computer labs” and in order to make use of the lab, teachers had to make time to get their students in and get out. With the One-To-One program, the world becomes a computer lab. Students can use their netbook in every classroom and most importantly, at home.

Page 2 of 3 - “If they don’t have a computer at home, they can still keep up with their classmates,” Kilgore suggested. “Even in their regular course work, most college students today are reporting there are more and more online activities that connect with regular traditional classes. “

At PTHS, for the first time since the program began with the freshman class four years ago, every student has a netbook, which they can use to complete class work and interact with other students. In order to see how this program would project over the next four years and to see where improvements could be made, the high school invited four technology experts, who had initially come to audit the program for the state, to come back and audit the program as well as Skyward — a software package specializing in administrative packages used to manage and store information pertaining to student management, human resources, financial management, food service and special education — to keep the high school knowledgeable about how they could maximize their data collection and analysis.

“They came down initially to only audit the One-To-One program,” said Kilgore. “But we asked them if they could look at Skyward too and let us know how we could maximize our data collection and analysis.”

Amy Krause, technology director for Pontiac Township High School, reported to the Board of Education on the findings of the audit which was conducted in May by the Educational Collaborators project team.

The audit team reviewed materials provided by the school district that included parent walk-through data, the previous program audit, the high school’s technology plan and the state’s Illinois Interactive Report Card the district.

They examined three areas of the system available at the high school including how testing data is collected for analysis, the program’s technology infrastructure and data availability at the high school and how the program and Skyward are being used to help the administration.

“I am pleased to report most of the recommendations they made are things we are in the process of completing or have already completed,” said Krause. “I was very nervous because these are four of the best technology gurus in the state and they looked at everything.”

For data collection, suggestions included continuing to take steps to improve the use of Skyward, improving data gathering and analysis for incoming freshmen as well as data collected from 7th and 8th grade standardized tests and gathering data from students at the end of their senior year.

Prior to discussing analysis of the school’s infrastructure and technology, Krause noted to the board that seven additional wifi hotspots — wireless Internet strengthening points — had been added to the high school over the summer to make room for an increase of 200 netbooks. She also reported that the high school had changed their Internet Service Provider from Medicom, which offered a 30 megabyte connection, to Central Illinois Regional Broadband Network, which now offers the high school a 60 megabyte connection, doubling their speed. As more teachers and students begin to use the Internet for daily activities, Krause said the increase in bandwidth is necessary.

Page 3 of 3 - “We have to stay current and stay on top of things to keep the network up and running,” said Krause. “If our network is down even for a second it impacts everybody, especially when you are in a one-to-one program. Whether it’s our maintenance department, cafeteria or secretaries, everybody has a computer and everybody uses it. So when the network is down even for a second, it could be a catastrophe.”

Along with keeping up on the wireless access points and data usage, auditors also suggested district leaders and teachers need to reaffirm their expectations for the behavior of technology users at all levels and continue to update the accepted use policy. Krause said this is especially important for making sure that students — who she said will undoubtedly become more familiar with the ins and outs of their netbooks over the years — know what is acceptable for their usage of the netbooks and what is not.

In regard to the current use of instructional and administrative technologies, the auditors suggested among other things that the high school continue to provide training on the different models of curriculum and technology integration.

“The auditors met with so many people and looked at so much data, but it meant a lot to me because technology is part of everything that we do here,” said Krause.